According to what Microsoft is saying now, the so-called Windows 7 Server is not a major release and is really nothing more than Windows Server 2008 R2, a continuation of the Long Horn code base, with no changes to the core operating system components.

And although the Microsoft Server team maintains that the Windows 7 client is a major release, according to what Mary Jo Foley, that doyenne of Windows watchers, is now reporting, the Windows 7 client and Windows Server 2008 R2 are based on the same code base and should RTM together.

The new Microsoft e7 blog, well, I’m not sure what the heck it’s saying. You tell me. It sounds like they’re saying it’s whatever you want it to be.

Try this too. Confusion is rife.

Windows 7 is commanding considerable resources; e7 says that there are 25 features teams working on Windows 7, each with about 100 engineers, including roughly 40 code writers, an equal number of testers and the rest managers.

Said teams include:

• Applets and Gadgets
• Assistance and Support Technologies
• Core User Experience
• Customer Engineering and Telemetry
• Deployment and Component Platform
• Desktop Graphics
• Devices and Media
• Devices and Storage
• Documents and Printing
• Engineering System and Tools
• File System
• Find and Organize
• Fundamentals
• Internet Explorer (including IE 8 down-level)
• International
• Kernel & VM
• Media Center
• Networking - Core
• Networking - Enterprise
• Networking - Wireless
• Security
• User Interface Platform
• Windows App Platform

Then there are also folks who work across the product on:

“Content Development – the writers and editors that create the online assistance, web site, SDK documents, and deployment documents.

“Product Planning – responsible for the customer research and learning that informs the selection of features. Product Planning also coordinates the work we do with partners across the ecosystem in terms of partnering through the design and development of the release.

“Product Design – develops the overall interaction model, graphical language, and design language for Windows 7.

“Research and Usability – creates field and lab studies that show how existing products and proposed feature perform with customers.”

According to Microsoft senior VP Steven Sinofsky, “Some have said that the Windows team is just too big and that it has reached a size that causes engineering problems. At the same time, I might point out that just looking at the comments there is a pretty significant demand for a broad set of features and changes to Windows. It takes a set of people to build Windows and it is a big project. The way that I look at this is that our job is to have the Windows team be the right size – that sounds cliche but [what] I mean by that is that the team is neither too large nor too small, but is effectively managed so that the work of the team reflects the size of the team and you see the project as having the benefits we articulate. I’m reminded of a scene from Amadeus where the Emperor suggests that the Marriage of Figaro contains ‘too many notes’ to which Mozart proclaims ‘there are just as many notes, Majesty, as are required, neither more nor less.’ Upon the Emperor suggesting that Mozart remove a few notes, Mozart simply asks ‘which few did you have in mind?’”